Fis, ever-mysterious Tri Angle producer, touring Europe this month

Having released two EPs on Tri Angle Records (most recently Iterations) and one for the super-exclusive, vinyl-only Samurai Horo label, New Zealand-based artist Fis has established a raw, ethereal sound driven as much by scattershot beats as organic texture. It’s abrasive yet groovy, and very no-fucks-given in a smart way. Fis has been tipped heavily as one of those rare new artists with a real new sound. He claims to be inspired by the rhythms he finds in meditation, as well as traditional Maori music. His name is a Gaelic word for “secret knowledge,” according to a big feature on him over at Resident Advisor. He was even reluctant to get a Facebook page.

Well, with all the hype and mystique, it seems just about the right time for Fis to make an appearance or two. He’ll be touring in the month of June, peddling his elusive sound throughout Europe; have a listen to a track from his first EP, Preparations, in the meantime:

Where’s Spoon been? Oh, they’ve been fleeing from unknown forces desiring their immortal souls. That was my first guess, and I was right, because Ockham’s Razor and all. Due to the pursuit from soul takers, Spoon haven’t put out a record since 2010’s Transference. But Spoon shall live in fear no longer: as NPR reports, they’re back and willing to relay their experiences on a new album titled They Want My Soul, out August 5 through Loma Vista.

W-W-W-W-W-WHAT? Loma Vista? Not Merge? No, friends, the decade-plus marriage of Spoon and Merge Records has ended, assumedly in a magnanimous fashion. Although Loma Vista seems a fine home for the band, I must regretfully report that love is dead.

Love isn’t all that’s dead, though! (Killer segue, me.) Spoon have been teasing something called “R.I.P.” lately, saying only that whatever it is will happen June 10. Analysts predict that, yeah, it’s probably the record’s first single. Or that the band have resigned themselves to some horrible fate.

If you can’t wait those few days for new Spoon (or simply do not trust that this R.I.P. business isn’t something awful), then perhaps check out the interview they recently did with All Songs Considered. In said interview, you get a little background about why Spoon’s been keeping it so low-key the last few years, aside from the obvious reasons (soul stealers). But what you’re really looking for are the clips from various They Want My Soul songs. You’ll get it, you vultures.

The enigmatic artist Jandek, who has for many years been cloaked in mystery, shrouded in secrecy, and wrapped tightly in a perplexing fog, has recently taken to all manner of social media platforms, such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and oddly enough, even the new Myspace, which he personally lauds as having an “innovative side-scrolling design” and “just generally really pleasing to the eye.” The artist, who has for nearly 40 years been notable for his inscrutability, mystification, subtlety, and for generally being a tough nut to crack is now tweeting regularly at the handle @ifuckwithcorwood, and has been listening to the latest Arcade Fire album on the new Myspace pretty much on repeat since last Friday. To quote country superstar Brad Paisley, “Welcome to the future.”

This social media blitz is a bit uncharacteristic for an artist long known for his secretive nature and his ability to play the blues guitar in a way that makes it sound like it’s always out of tune no matter how accurate the tuner app he just downloaded claims to be. In fact, over the course of almost 70 albums, from 1978’s Ready for the House to more recent offerings like 2007’s The Ruins of Adventure, 2005’s Khartoum, and 2004’s Shadow of Leaves, Jandek and his label Corwood Industries have developed a mythos that is, to quote myself from earlier, “cloaked in mystery, shrouded in secrecy, and wrapped tightly in a perplexing fog.”

Anyhow, uncharacteristic though it may be, the social media extravaganza is not without purpose. In addition to announcing the founding of a TMZ-like sister site for the Corwood Industries homepage, Corwood Industries has also made a giant leap in to the future by deigning to accept online orders through a newly-opened web store. Scope the store here and find yourself wondering why the Corwood catalog numbers begin with “0739.” Where previously one either had to send Corwood Industries a letter with their order, or visit their local cool record store, put on a blindfold, and run his or her finger along the Jandek shelf until stopping on the one that “feels ripe,” now, with the magic of the internet you don’t even have to get up from that there couch of yours. To quote former US Senator Ted Stevens, “The internet is a series of tubes.”

Not unlike fellow Brit hero King Arthur, prog rock juggernaut King Crimson have entered suspended animation for several extended periods since the band’s inception in the late-1960s. The most recent hibernation came in 2008, following a string of successful shows as a sextet (their first since 2004), and now the time has come for the band to rise again — Robert Fripp, the group’s mastermind and sole permanent member, has announced a fall US tour.

Despite their on/off nature, the band has never fallen out of the limelight, with their songs popping up in soundtracks, percussionist Bill Rieflin guesting on Swans’ recent output, and Fripp himself shredding through Grinderman’s 2010 lecherous cut “Super Heathen Child”. The band’s line-up for these shows includes Fripp on guitar, longtime member Tony Levin on bass, Jakko Jakszyk on guitar and vocals, Mel Collins on winds, and Pat Mastelotto, Gavin Harrison, and Bill Rieflin on drums. Yeah, you read that right. Three drummers.

This tour has long been in the making; Fripp announced his intentions to reanimate the band last September after collaborating with several members of the current line-up on different solo ventures. This past weekend, three New York shows were announced, and now the tour schedule has expanded significantly. A tour of the UK may be in the works but remains unconfirmed at this time.

The tickets for the first NYC shows (September 18, 19, and 20) are out on June 6 at noon, so be ready to hit that Refresh button unless you want to be quarreling with your uncle Joe (who “used to love groovy music back in the day”) over who saw that scalper first.

Well, we’re here. We’ve finally made it to a time where Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew can get mentioned in the same breath as New Kids on the Block’s Hangin’ Tough and the Super Mario Bros. score. I like to imagine Miles hanging out with Jordan Knight, discussing ways to arrange “I’ll Be Loving You (Forever)” for trumpet, while Joey McIntyre and Donnie Wahlberg argue over how to reach Princess Toadstool in the background. Isn’t 2014 wonderful?

This fantasy scenario (which concludes with Jordan tearfully handing over a bottle of his favorite hair gel to Miles and Donnie throwing down his controller in anger as Bowser defeats him) is made possible by the 33 1/3 series from Bloomsbury, which has previously brought you in-depth critical analysis of everything from Celine Dion’s Let’s Talk About Love to Andrew W.K.’s I Get Wet. The powers that be recently finished unveiling 14 new titles that will be added to the 33 1/3 lineup, including Donny Hathaway’s Donny Hathaway Live, Sleater-Kinney’s Dig Me Out, and Daniel Johnston’s Hi, How Are You — plus the above-mentioned Bitches Brew, Hangin’ Tough, and the Super Mario Bros. score by Koji Kondo.

As for bands that already frequently get mentioned in the same sentence, both the Grateful Dead’s Workingman’s Dead and Phish’s A Live One will get the 33 1/3 treatment in the fall of 2015.

When not writing about music, I hold a day job at a record store in lower Manhattan, a pleasant profession that is heavy on downtime. “You have the best job ever, Chris,” people have said to me in passing. Little do they know that listening to music for 12 hours straight does something to a man. After a while, you start grasping for any band that you haven’t heard before, like a drug addict desperate for a taste. You find merit in 90s bubblegum pop groups from Europe. Then you have serious trouble telling what’s good from what’s bad. Eventually, your world collapses in on itself. In that dark hour, the only thing that can reorient you is a new Caribou album.

Dan Snaith — the Canadian mathematician behind psych project Caribou and the more dance-oriented project Daphni — is finally returning with his sixth LP, Our Love, on October 7 via Merge Records. Featuring guest collaborations from Hyperdub singer Jessy Lanza and JRPG enthusiast/songwriter Owen Pallett, Our Love has been described as “a mixture of digital pop production, hip hop inspired beats, muted house basslines, and a love of shuffling garage.” Also an album that my record store will be spinning until every customer resents Dan Snaith and myself, prompting them to revisit that one kinda-good Steps album from 1998. Until then, listen to Caribou’s new single “Can’t Do Without You” below, followed by the full album tracklist and a ton of 2014 world tour dates.

Our Love tracklist:

01. Can’t Do Without You
02. Silver
03. All I Ever Need
04. Our Love
05. Dive
06. Second Chance
07. Julia Brightly
08. Mars
09. Back Home
10. Your Love Will Set You Free